Union-garment



Patented Feb. 15, 1921.

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UNION GARMENT. APPLICATION FlLmAuaefirezo.

THOMAS WESLEY HOOK, OF SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

UNION-GARMENT.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 15, 1921.

Application filed August 6, 1920. Serial No. 401,622.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it lmown that I THOMAS WESLEY HOOK, a citizen of the United States, residing at San Antonio, in the county of Bexar and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Union- Garments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to union suits or garments of the class in which a section or strip of elastic or semi-elastic woven or knitted material is embodied in the garment at the back of the waist in order to allow the garment to stretch to some extent when the body of the wearer is bent and to afterward return to its normal position. The ribbed cloth ordinarily used for this purpose is efficient for only a short time. It soon becomes permanently stretched or distorted and therefore the size of the garment is unduly increased and a neat fit is lost., Furthermore, experience has demonstrated that the ribbed cloth often tears easily and is unfit for use long before other parts of the garment are unserviceable.

According to my invention I provide means for preventing undue stretching of the ribbed waist section and for assisting it to return to normal condition. For this purpose I use a plurality of short lengths of elastic webbing in the form of tape which are arranged vertically at intervals at the back of the waist and across the ribbed section of the garment and are detachably connected with the garment. These tapes have the rubber threads which they.

contain arranged vertically so that when the ribbed band section is stretched, the tapes are also stretched and take a large part of the strain and they act quickly'to return the parts to their original condition or to such condition as to best serve the comfort of the wearer.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 shows a front elevation of a bifurcated union suit or garment with my improvements applied.

Fig. 2 is a detail view on an enlarged scale showing the elastic waist band section and the elastic tapes associated therewith. Fig. '3 shows a section on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

' The garment shown in Fig. 1 is in general outline of well known construction and it is provided with a waist band section A at the rear made of elastic or semielastic material in well known ways. The part A may be made of ribbed cloth, having considerable elasticity, in a vertical direction and also to some extent lengthwise or horizontally, and it is attached to the rear portion of the garment along its longitudinal and end edges in the usual way. The manner in which this is done is clearly indicated in Fig. 3.

As indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, the section A can be stretched vertically to a considerable extent and when the garment is new good results are obtained, but soon the stretchable cloth becomes permanently stretched and bags or sags and no longer accomplishes the purposes for which it is intended. To remedy these defects I employ a plurality of tapes B of elastic webbing which are attached to the garment in the manner indicated in Fig. 3. They are arrangedcrosswise of the section A with the threads of rubber which they contain running vertically. A plurality of tapes should be used. I have shown three as this number is ordinarily sufiicient. When the garment is stretched, the section A is extended and at the same time the tapes are lengthened and relieve the section A of much of the strain. As soon as the strain is removed, the tapes assist in returning the parts to normal condition.

My improvements may be easily applied to garments of well known construction without material change therein.

. As shown in Fig. 3 the edges of the cloth A are turned before they are attached to the body of the garment. It will be observed that the elastic tapes B are detachably secured to the part A. Any suitable detachable fastening device may be employed; the drawings indicate snap fasteners of well known construction. In this way, the parts B may be removed from the THOMAS WESLEY HOOK. 

